Search for ‘Amazon Music’

November 19, 2024:

First look: In a move that could be targeted at Spotify, Amazon Music is adding the entire Audible audiobook catalog to its app. Unlimited subscribers in the US, UK and Canada can now listen to one Audible title for free each month (of any length), alongside more than 100 million songs in HD Audio, and a range of ad-free podcasts. Audible is the best-known brand for audiobooks (and lays claim to be an early podcast company, too): this offer also includes the company’s original productions. We’ve analysis, below.

August 7, 2024:

Amazon Music has launched a new AI-powered feature for podcast discovery. Topics, available in the US only, are based on automatically extracting things spoken about in podcasts from transcripts, “alongside human review”. It appears to only work across top podcasts for now.

August 5, 2024:

The Audio Production Awards has announced a “Pay What You Can” scheme, supported by Amazon Music and Wondery. The scheme offers free entry to the awards and to the ceremony, for those who otherwise would not be able to do so due to financial constraints.

April 29, 2024:

Three US presidents are united on an episode of SmartLess available today. Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes were joined by Presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton in New York City. The episode was available early on Amazon Music and Wondery+. The show switches to SiriusXM later this year.

April 26, 2024:

Is RSS good for the environment? Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music are, according to Earth Notes, particularly bad at polling podcast RSS feeds very often, just in case someone’s published a new episode. (Our own RSS stats also show the size of the problem).

April 23, 2024:

Novel has a new CEO: Craig Strachan. He joins from Amazon Music, where he was Global Head of Podcast Industry.

March 18, 2024:

The BBC has reached an agreement with Amazon Music to add its podcasts outside the UK. Subscribers to Amazon Prime will get more than fifty of the shows ad-free.

March 12, 2024:

Amazon Music has made Megan Bradshaw the Head of Podcasts, Europe, Australia and New Zealand; and Ana Karina Quiroz is Head of Podcasts for North America, LATAM and Spain.

March 11, 2024:

Amazon Music has hired Shea Simpson to the new role of Head of Podcast Business. He will be overseeing all aspects of the podcast business globally for Amazon Music, including podcast programming, partnerships, and marketing. He moves from Wondery.

February 21, 2024:

In France, a charity event called Podcasthon is planned for next month. The idea is to make a special version of your show that highlights a cause or charity; and to co-ordinate its release at the end of March. Last year, 300 podcasts took part; this year, it has the support of Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Spotify. 400 shows have already registered for this year - et vous? (Next year’s Podcasthon will be in English and other languages, too).

February 16, 2024:

Have your podcast featured on Amazon Music (Blubrry)

January 26, 2024:

Amazon Music announced that it was adding transcripts to its app in November 2021. It was limited at the time to Wondery shows; Amazon told us that podcasters couldn’t edit or supply their own transcripts. We can’t find transcripts for any shows in the Amazon Music app today (we tried a number of Wondery shows and other large shows on the platform).

January 12, 2024:

A tweet reads: "Exactly Right & My Favorite Murder are no longer in partnership with Wondery and Amazon Music." The agreement appears to have ended a year early.

January 1, 2024:

Amazon Music has awarded RedHanded its British Podcast of the Year for 2023. The three-time British Podcast Awards winner is published by Wondery.

December 18, 2023:

’Tis The Grinch Holiday Podcast is to be back next year, after Wondery greenlit a second season. The popular podcast currently holds the #1 rank within the Kids & Family category on Amazon Music. Wondery's Marshall Lewy said: "The Grinch told me that he found being a talk show host was a surprisingly satisfying experience! We look forward to bringing him back for more Grinchy snark next holiday season."

November 29, 2023:

The Sam & Billie Show is now with Wondery and Amazon Music for distribution and ad-sales. The announcement was made last week. The show's made by Crowd Network, stars UK TV personalities Sam and Billie Faiers, and it's available ad-free on Amazon Music (and everywhere else with ads).

November 15, 2023:

From Airwave: TechCrunch Industry News helps you keep up to date about the latest in the tech world, with two episodes every weekday. Recent shows have focused on TikTok's feature to save songs you like directly to Spotify or Amazon Music; and the new Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones.

November 9, 2023:

Meanwhile, in Paris, Acast has brought a number of shows to the stage, working with brands like Maybelline and Amazon Music.

November 2, 2023:

Of note, Amazon Music downloads were down from 2.2mn in September to 1.1mn in October.

October 10, 2023:

Craig Strachan has been promoted to Global Head of Podcast Industry at Amazon Music. He was Head of Podcasts for Europe/ANZ, and has been with Amazon since 2016.

October 6, 2023:

Amazon has launched a self-service podcast advertising tool in the UK. This launch gives advertisers the ability to reach audiences based on demographics (age range and gender) across Amazon Music and Wondery shows, and third-party publishers, apps, and sites via Amazon Publisher Direct.

August 14, 2023:

In the UK, the Audio Production Awards has announced a Pay What You Can scheme. The scheme is sponsored by Amazon Music and Wondery.

August 1, 2023:

Amazon is to require streaming video apps on its FireTV platform to share 30% of their ad revenue with the company, or to use the company's own ad sales program. Podcasts which contain advertising are not required to share ad revenue at this time - but we presume Amazon Music, Spotify and YouTube will all be watching this with interest.

July 21, 2023:

Trevor McNeal of Podcasts at Amazon Music, and Vice President, The Podglomerate Joni Deutsch.

July 20, 2023:

New from Wondery and AT WILL MEDIA today, Academy is a Young-Adult audio fiction drama telling the story of an elite boarding school with a powerful secret society - a playground for cutthroat competition, dangerous liaisons, and the zero-sum games of high school popularity and Ivy League admission letters. The star-studded podcast is available on Amazon Music and Wondery+.

July 19, 2023:

Ryan Redington has been promoted to GM of Amazon Music. Predecessor Steve Boom is now leading all Amazon's digital entertainment businesses.

July 10, 2023:

The BBC has reached agreement with Amazon to carry its podcasts on Amazon Music in the UK. The agreement was made two years and ten months after Amazon Music's podcast service launched.

June 29, 2023:

A study by the Observatorio Nebrija del Español at Nebrija University in Madrid examined 263 original podcasts published last year by Amazon Music, Audible, Cuonda, iVoox, Podimo, Podium Podcast, Sonora and Spotify. The study discovered that 68% of original podcasts from these companies were only available with a paid subscription. Sonora led Spanish podcast production in 2022, with 84 original podcasts.

May 25, 2023:

Also at the show, Wondery and Amazon Music announced a distribution and ad-sales deal with UK comedian and actor Rob Brydon's Brydon & interview podcast. The podcast was previously with Spotify.

May 9, 2023:

Our Editor, James Cridland, will be the opening speaker at The Podcast Show 2023 in London. He will speak at 9.10am on Wednesday, in the 400-capacity Amplify Theatre, in association with Amazon Music / Wondery and IAB UK: focusing on the last year in the podcast industry and the years to come. His speech will be followed by Crime Junkie host Ashley Flowers. (You can still buy tickets for the event - the code PODNEWS will get you a discount)

May 8, 2023:

In the latest in the fight for podcast listening apps, Amazon Music is paying some Australian listeners AUD$5 (USD$3.39) in vouchers just for listening to a podcast on the platform. The offer is targeted, and we're not eligible. But if you are, a reminder that Podnews Daily is just five minutes long…

March 20, 2023:

Bad Dates with Jameela Jamil is new today from Wondery - it's the first series to debut from the SmartLess Media slate and features a panel of hilarious guests, who each share tales of their worst/craziest dates ever, and then weigh in on everyone else's misfortune. It's available exclusively on Amazon Music today, but everywhere next week.

February 23, 2023:

Few people listen to podcasts in Japan. Why is that - and what kind of shows could work well in the country? In the first of our deep-dives into different podcast markets across East and South East Asia, Guang Jin YEO looks at the Japanese market: where Twitter is popular, copyright laws differ, and Amazon Music is #3.

February 16, 2023:

Amazon Music has lost an exclusive podcast. Disgraceland is now available everywhere (it became an Amazon exclusive last year). The podcast is celebrating its 5-year anniversary this week, and has just released the premiere for season 11 of the show. Being available everywhere drives the download numbers: Podtrac now ranks Disgraceland as the #1 music podcast again.

February 13, 2023:

Further reading: Semafor is the latest with a take on How Spotify's podcast bet went wrong. (If coming from nowhere and being #1 in most countries in less than four years is "going wrong", then what does that mean for Amazon Music, Google Podcasts or Samsung Free?) … Bianca Bush from Acast writes about why the brand-safe nature of podcasting is perfect for trustworthy, unfiltered conversations

February 6, 2023:

Stolen Hearts is released today from Wondery. The show journeys back to 2006 to tell the barely believable true story of a highly respected police sergeant from rural Wales who falls for the wrong guy. This limited series, produced by Wondery and Novel, merges crime and romcom in a twisting, tail-spinning true-life story, told over the course of six-episodes. Episode one is everywhere; you can binge all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.

January 30, 2023:

That Harley/ user-agent you might see in your logfiles? It's from Amazon Music's desktop app. It's updated in OPAWG's user-agents-v2.

January 5, 2023:

Amazon Music asked to reduce a potential $10m deal with Pushkin Industries, after the audio division was told to make savings, according to Bloomberg. The Great Podcasting Market Correction highlights recent employment freezes and layoffs in the industry, and a slowdown of acquisitions. Ad sales have increased though, says Magellan AI in the article.

December 12, 2022:

Amazon Music has covered London and other European capitals with advertising for the company's Best of 2022 podcasts. In London, ads will be appearing for the next two weeks promoting ten of the top podcasters. The company also carried audio ads within the Wondery network for the chosen podcasts, and produced social media assets. See more examples of the projections in London and Paris below.

December 2, 2022:

Will Arnett is hosting a World Cup live chat on Amazon's Amp. There's a podcast version exclusive to Amazon Music.

November 18, 2022:

Jacob Kensley joined Amazon Music last month as a Podcast Partner Specialist, and is the first dedicated hiring for podcast partnerships at Amazon Music in the EU. He joins from Acast and Apple.

November 4, 2022:

Amazon Music Prime users, and Amazon Music Unlimited, now has thousands of ad-free podcasts from Acast. Acast will share revenue from the agreement with creators. This news builds on Amazon's announcement earlier in the week that they would offer ad-free podcasts for Prime users.

November 2, 2022:

In a renewed fight against Spotify, Amazon has made big changes to Amazon Music Prime, including ad-free podcasts. Included with your Prime account, the service now offers 100 million songs (on shuffle) instead of the 2 million it had before; and "the largest catalogue of ad-free top podcasts", including Wondery's catalogue, Amazon Originals and Exclusives, and other publishers.

October 17, 2022:

Wondery's Suspect returns for a new season. Suspect: Vanished in the Snow looks at a disappearance in the Rocky Mountains. Hosted by former CNN reporter Ashley Fantz, it's an Amazon Music exclusive.

September 28, 2022:

True crime podcaster MrBallen has signed with Amazon Music. Unlike previous Amazon Music podcast deals like SmartLess, it appears to be an exclusive deal that will remove the show from other platforms.

September 19, 2022:

Amazon Music is celebrating two years since the launch of podcasts in the app. It currently has a 0.7% share globally, though is a top 3 app in Japan.

September 12, 2022:

In the UK, the Audio Production Awards has announced a "Pay What You Can" scheme with Amazon Music and Wondery. Entrants and attendees who would otherwise be unable to enter can choose to pay what they can afford.

September 8, 2022:

Radio France podcasts will be available on Amazon Music, after an agreement was signed between the two companies. Like other third-party platforms, Amazon Music gets daily shows from Radio France for 7 days, and weekly shows for 30 days, before they become exclusives in the Radio France app.

September 7, 2022:

What does the podcast industry look like in Japan? Otonal, a Japanese adtech company, published this study of Japanese podcast listening earlier this year. Spotify is the most-used platform; Apple Podcasts at #2, and Amazon Music at #3.

May 24, 2022:

A new original podcast from SALT and Amazon Music has launched. Become is a health and wellness podcast, designed to give listeners "a daily dose of relaxation and mindfulness that gets them energized to tackle whatever is next".

May 12, 2022:

Amazon Music has launched in Argentina. The service includes podcasts from leading media partners COPESA, RDF Media, Radio Cooperativa, National Geographic, Sonoro, and TED in Argentina; and original content will be launching in the coming months.

April 26, 2022:

New from Wondery and Amazon Music, Will Be Wild has been launched from Pineapple Street Studios. The show is a deep-dive into the Jan 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. Hosted by award-winning investigative journalists Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, it's available on all podcast platforms, with Amazon Music getting new episodes first.

April 13, 2022:

The terms for Amazon Music for Podcasters have been updated. Here are all the changes: there doesn't appear to be any obvious change for us (though clarity that the service does not cache your podcast nor inject advertising).

March 28, 2022:

Amazon Music and Wondery have closed a deal with Audacy's Pineapple Street Studios. The podcast production company will produce at least four new shows. It comes hot on the heels of 9/12 winning three awards, including Podcast of the Year, at The Ambies.

March 23, 2022:

The Ambies, the awards from The Podcast Academy that celebrate excellence in podcasting, took place last night. The winners are here: 9/12, from Amazon Music, Pineapple Studios and Wondery was the podcast of the year; the podcast's host Dan Taberski accepted the award in the award ceremony in Los Angeles CA, USA.

March 2, 2022:

Are indie podcast apps gaining ground? Buzzsprout report Apple had 35.7% of all downloads in February (down from 37.2%); Spotify 27.9% (also down from 28%). Google Podcasts has grown to 2.5%; Amazon Music has grown to 0.8%; and Facebook is up slightly to 0.5%. In their official podcast, Buzzsprout also mentions "a big update soon".

February 11, 2022:

Amazon Music and Wondery have signed How I Built This with Guy Raz. Wondery gets the exclusive ad sales and YouTube distribution rights for simulcasts; NPR keeps the radio distribution rights and the underwriting credits. Production of the show will double to two a week; and Amazon Music gets exclusive rights to air the podcast for a week.

February 9, 2022:

Our very own daily podcast, Podnews, is now achieving over 100,000 downloads a month, we're quite excited to note. Our latest data tells us that many of those listens are on smart speaker news briefings, and that Pocket Casts is doing excellently well, though some less well - Spotify (27 listens on Monday), Facebook (20 listens), and Amazon Music (um, 20 fewer than Facebook).

January 31, 2022:

However, many musicians distrust Spotify, and may see this as a convenient excuse to give the company a kick. Particularly, Neil Young has a history of digital activism - he removed his music from Tidal in January 2021, after complaining about their branding of MQA audio as "masters": his songs only returned in November. Young founded the hi-res PonoMusic, which ceased to trade two years after the launch of Tidal. Spotify announced a high-res format of their own in Feb 2021, but has yet to launch it; and a day after pulling his music from Spotify, Young added a blog post complaining about the service's poor audio quality. Coincidentally, perhaps, he was quoted by Amazon Music in a press release apparently favouring their high-res format, and is now promoting the service on his website. It's unclear if this is a promotional relationship.

January 14, 2022:

The Missing has returned for season 3. You can listen to the whole thing on Amazon Music, or weekly episodes via RSS. Each episode in the 10-part series breaks down the case of a long-term missing person, and gives listeners the opportunity to join the conversation and offer new information to aid the search. It's produced by Podimo. - read more

January 12, 2022:

Amazon Music Podcasts has more than 200,000 podcasts, and "55 million customers", according to a podcast creator outreach document being shared by the company. It says that you'll be able to track your download numbers in their dashboard "soon".

January 11, 2022:

Disgraceland returns for a new season today, starting with a premiere episode focused on Taylor Swift’s stalkers, vanishing masters, love letters and more. The show is on Amazon Music, with selected shows also released via RSS, and claims it's the the number one most downloaded music podcast in the world. - read more

December 27, 2021:

Voxalyze has published their Podcast Discovery & Consumption report. The company surveyed listeners across four countries (the US, UK, France and Germany) to see if there are any local differences. Podcast listeners use 1.9 platforms on average, and Amazon Music is surprisingly high in their results. Google Podcasts reaches up to 15% of all users, but only 4% in the UK (possibly because the BBC blocks their podcasts from it).

December 16, 2021:

Amazon Music has a proprietary solution for transcripts, which are patchy and automated. There is no mechanism for publishers to supply their own transcripts.

December 13, 2021:

Podnews is rolling out direct links to listen to shows on Amazon Music in our podcast pages. An example is on Podland. Our pages will also highlight if you're missing from that directory; and you can search Amazon Music's podcasts from our search pages.

November 29, 2021:

Podcast apps may be buying ads for your podcast in Google Search without you knowing. Acast, The Podcast App and Amazon Music are all advertising against our own podcast title, and that of many other podcast titles, too. On an iPhone in the UK, an ad for Amazon Music appeared as the #1 search result for Podnews, seeming to suggest that access to our podcast costs £7.99/month, which is misleading (it's free on any platform). The Acast ad leads to a web player, but no method of subscribing; The Podcast App's ad led us to a web player with promotion for their own podcast app.

November 4, 2021:

We promised we'd report back on Amazon's new proprietary podcast transcripts. We've received confirmation that podcast publishers are currently unable to submit their own transcripts to Amazon Music. We've more details about transcripts and their importance.

November 3, 2021:

Amazon Music has announced a "synchronised podcast transcripts" feature. It's only available in the Amazon Music app, only in the US, and only for recent episodes of Amazon Original and Wondery shows. It's going to be opened to other selected shows shortly; as far as we can tell, it's a proprietary solution with no link to the existing open transcript standard from the new podcast namespace. We've asked how podcasters can submit transcripts.

November 1, 2021:

Amazon has announced Country Heat Weekly, a show that "bring's Amazon Music's Country Heat playlist to life". Digiday calls their strategy haphazard and sprawling.

October 26, 2021:

The Podcast Show 2022 has announced new partners, including Amazon Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Wondery, Adswizz and Triton Digital. The show will also include a week of live podcast events across London.

September 22, 2021:

Badlands: Sportsland launches today, taking a deep dive into the most sensational true crime stories in the world of sports: Mike Tyson, Oscar Pistorious, Evel Knievel and OJ Simpson are just some of the athletes who'll be covered. It's hosted by Jake Brennan, and available to binge on Amazon Music.

September 2, 2021:

Dan Taberski's 9/12 has been launched on Amazon Music and Wondery+. The show will be available on RSS on Sep 8. It focuses on people for whom 9/11 changed everything.

August 17, 2021:

Why did Amazon get into podcasting? For a share of its growing ad revenue, according to an interview with Steve Boom, the head of Amazon Music, in Bloomberg Businessweek.

August 12, 2021:

The host of Missing Richard Simmons is working on a new show about how 9/11 changed the world. The show, called 9/12, will be exclusive to Amazon Music for a week from September 1, with a weekly release everywhere from September 8.

July 19, 2021:

Thank you to Amazon Music Podcasts for recently returning as a supporter of Podnews. Your support, and that of your peers, help us focus on this independent resource for podcasters. Here's how you can support us

June 30, 2021:

Amazon has bought the distribution and adsales rights for the SmartLess podcast for between $60-80 million. The show will not be exclusive, but will be published one week early on Amazon Music and Wondery+. The deal was through CAA.

June 16, 2021:

Win or lose, sink or swim, one thing is certain, he'll never give in. Disgraceland is back for season 8, and focuses on ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who might appear a nice chap, but has spent time in prison, famously broke up with John Lennon, and Paul is dead anyway. It's exclusive to Amazon Music.

May 28, 2021:

The British Podcast Awards, powered by Amazon Music, are about to reveal their nominees: 1pm UK time, 8am New York time, on their website. Hosting the stream are Hannah and Suruthi, the presenters of the popular true crime podcast Redhanded. They'll also be revealing the in-person location for this year's awards.

April 15, 2021:

An announcement about Amazon's new headphones also promotes a new feature for Alexa coming soon: "you’ll soon be able to listen to podcasts you follow on Amazon Music by just saying: Alexa, play my followed podcasts."

April 7, 2021:

We've discovered an Amazon Music Podcasters portal has been quietly launched. It seems to be a way to add your podcast to Amazon and Audible, and has some promotional tools.

April 2, 2021:

Moving your podcast away from Libsyn? Be aware that they do not automatically set a 301 redirect for your Amazon Music feed. "This is a known bug that we are working to resolve moving forward," they say: you need to ask Libsyn to configure that manually.

March 9, 2021:

Other larger podcast apps have already changed: Spotify and Audible use "follow", Stitcher uses "+ follow", and Amazon Music uses "♡ follow". Meanwhile, Google Podcasts and Castbox use "+ Subscribe", and Overcast and Castro uses "Subscribe".

March 5, 2021:

Being open helps, seemingly - just four nominations were for Spotify exclusives; and one for Amazon Music's exclusive "The First One".

March 3, 2021:

Omny Studio's CEO, Sharon Taylor, has released her predictions for podcasting in 2021. The company, owned by Triton Digital, puts Amazon Music ahead of Google Podcasts for downloads in 2020.

February 22, 2021:

Audible appears to be listing third-party podcasts in the US. Amazon's page listing offers both Audible and Amazon Music options. (Oddly, the ASIN number is different for each).

February 17, 2021:

Amazon Music is looking for a Podcast Manager for Spain, and another in Italy.

February 11, 2021:

Amazon Music has signed an exclusive podcast. COLD, which was a Wondery show, is to stream season 2 exclusively on Amazon Music next month. COLD is currently in the top 100 in 40 countries; but podcasts from Amazon Music are currently available in just six of them, leaving many fans frozen out.

February 3, 2021:

Amazon Music has launched podcasts in Canada, eh. (Not in Amazon Music? Submit yours here, or through your host).

January 8, 2021:

The Podcast Academy has announced three new members of the Board: Kintan Brahmbhatt (GM of Podcasts at Amazon Music), Amy S. Choi (The Mash-Up Americans), and DeRay Mckesson (a civil rights activist and host of Pod Save the People). The new Executive Committee has also been appointed, including a new Chairperson; an announcement of who that is may be made later today.

December 10, 2020:

Here's how to promote your podcast's availability on Amazon Music, including buttons and things, if you'd not seen it.

December 9, 2020:

Fox News podcasts are now on Amazon Music.

November 20, 2020:

Amazon Music has quietly launched in Mexico and Brazil. In Mexico, the company has also launched an exclusive podcast, En la sala, hosted by Latin artist Becky G; there's an original in Brazil, too. (Thanks, Eric!)

November 16, 2020:

Podcast host Fireside has added support to get podcasts into Amazon Music, and has added an option for a Breaker listen badge, too.

November 2, 2020:

PowerPress 8.4.1 was released at the end of last week. It includes a submission tool to The Podcast Index and to Amazon Music.

October 16, 2020:

Amazon Music has released its first exclusive podcast. The First One is by DJ Khaled, a "mogul and superstar" with suspiciously neat facial hair.

October 12, 2020:

Amazon has bought two domain names: podcast.com and podcasting.com. They both forward to Audible, which doesn't have third-party podcasts on it. (Amazon Music does, in four countries).

September 25, 2020:

Amazon has released a new set of its Echo smart speakers. The release doesn't mention that you can use them to listen to podcasts on Amazon Music. Meanwhile, Amazon Music has now sent emails to podcasters who submitted their shows, saying their podcasts are now available on the service. Some podcasters outside of the UK, US, Germany and Japan have contacted Podnews, saying that they are unable to see their listings.

September 23, 2020:

In The Feed, Libsyn's Rob Walch reports that Amazon Music's new podcasts app out-performed Downcast, TuneIn Radio, Castro and other apps for downloads on their launch day. "I cannot remember anyone on their first day having the numbers that Amazon Music had," he said.

September 21, 2020:

After Podnews reported it as a bug, Amazon Music has correctly set their RSS user agent. It's Amazon Music Podcast. Thank you! Sounds Profitable has more on RSS user agents today.

September 18, 2020:

The Amazon Music podcast launch this week led James Burtt to wonder what might happen to podcast listening figures as a result. 22% of smart-speaker owners use them for podcasts, he discovers from some UK data.

September 17, 2020:

Amazon Music's podcast service goes live in the US, UK, Germany and Japan. We have all you need to know about podcasts in Amazon Music - how to get there, where it's available, and the useragents it uses.

September 16, 2020:

Amazon Music launched a podcast service in the US and the UK just after we went to press. We'll have more details tomorrow.

September 9, 2020:

According to Libsyn's The Feed, today is the last day to submit your podcast into Amazon Music/Audible to be there for the launch. Use your podcast host's distribution option, or this link if your podcast host doesn't have one. (If you wondered where Amazon makes its money, Benedict Evans has an illuminating piece today).

August 25, 2020:

Audible has unveiled new pricing for a new subscription podcast service. Audible Plus will offer access to exclusive Audible podcasts for US$7.95/month. (Luminary charges $4.99/month for their subscription service). Audible's Rachel Ghiazza apparently clarifies to The Verge that the platform is developing podcast content, but isn’t pulling them in from third-party RSS feeds. Confusingly, Podnews reported that Audible, and Amazon Music, have emailed podcasters to get them to submit their RSS feeds for a forthcoming service.

August 13, 2020:

After Podnews reported it on July 23, Amazon has apparently dropped the condition that, in order to be on Amazon Music/Audible’s upcoming podcast service you agreed you would not criticise Amazon in any way. According to The Desk, that portion of Amazon’s terms has now been quietly removed. However, we took a look: and what's it's been replaced with appears to be much more restrictive.

August 10, 2020:

Here's how to get your podcast into Amazon Music/Audible: the company has emailed a large number of podcasters over the last few days, inviting them to use this link to submit their shows to an upcoming service from the company. However, you are highly recommended to submit via your own podcast host if they offer the service, especially if you're with Libsyn, since you'll get additional control and statistics via your own podcast host's dashboard. Amazon haven't responded to our requests for comment.

August 7, 2020:

A number of additional podcast hosts are now allowing you to submit your podcasts to the yet-to-be-launched "Amazon Music/Audible" podcast service (some people are giving a backstage link that works for anyone on any host).

July 23, 2020:

We published Amazon Music/Audible's content license agreement for their upcoming podcast service yesterday. Kristofor Lawson points out that one clause says you can't say anything mean about Amazon in your podcast if you want to be on their platform. We've added this to our list of unusual terms and conditions from podcast hosts.

July 22, 2020:

Podcasts are coming to "Amazon Music / Audible"; Libsyn has quietly rolled out a distribution option for this service. "Amazon is not announcing a launch schedule at this time," the announcement says.

May 25, 2020:

Amazon will be delivering podcasts soon, according to Bloomberg - the article claims they'll be put into Amazon Music; we'd assume they'd also replace TuneIn as the default podcast experience for Alexa speakers. Meanwhile at Amazon's Audible, they're said to be looking at a different price-point to allow access to Audible Originals shows but not to books.

September 18, 2019:

Amazon has announced Amazon Music HD, which, for $5 extra per month, will offer HD songs in lossless FLAC format at "16 bits 44.1kHz sampling", and "million" of songs in ultra HD ("24 bits at up to 192kHz sampling"). The Verge points out that most phones have a maximum of 24-bit 44.1kHz sound chips anyway, and you're unlikely to hear the difference using Bluetooth headphones.